3-Year-Old Girl Crushed by Garage Door in Maryland

A 3-year-old girl in Waldorf, MD, was playing in her garage on Friday when she was crushed to death beneath the garage door.

The 3-year-old likely wandered away from her mother, says the Charles County Sheriff's office. She then probably hit the garage door button, causing it to begin to close. At that point she apparently tried to crawl underneath it before it closed completely, but she didn’t manage to make it through and was pinned to the ground.

"[T]he door came down and pinned her and ended up asphyxiating her,” said Diane Richardson, spokeswoman for the Charles County Sheriff’s office.

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Police are investigating why the emergency motion-sensors on the ends of the door did not sense the girl and stop the door from closing. Richardson said they are testing to see if the sensors malfunctioned, but the girl might have small enough to stoop below the sensors.

The incident occurred around 4pm. Police responded to a call on the 2900 block of Eutaw Forest Drive and found the girl crushed beneath the garage door. She was later pronounced dead at the hospital.

Waldorf is roughly 30 miles outside of Washington, D.C., east of the Potomac River.